NASSIR Posted November 23, 2005 WardheerNews leaves Anna Waa-i-Kan websites in the trail Bashir Goth Monday, November 22, 2005 There is a Somali wisdom that divides men into six categories: Nin Rag ah iyo Rag kalkaal, Rife iyo Rife Kalkaal, Abeeso laa iyo Ana waa i kan, to explain the riddle, it means Nin Rag ah (or a Real Man) is a man of initiatives who is bestowed with sound judgment and clear vision; a man whose ideas and proposals lead the clan to peace and prosperity. Rag Kalkaal or supporter of the Real Man is an honest man with good conscience who can appreciate and support the man of ideas and stand by him. Rife or shredder is one who tries to kill all good endeavors and pokes holes into every good idea; a man who is inhabited by evil demons and cannot stand to see good taking root in the society. Rife-kalkaal or shredder supporter is a man who is always ready to support the destructive ideas of Rife. Abeeso laa or snake-killer, in the traditional Somali nomad and rural culture, is the cobbler man who makes and mends shoes, or the artisan who makes handicrafts. Due to the nature of their work, these skilled men always practice their trade at the family camp or abode. Therefore, they became handy whenever the women of the clan encountered a danger such as snakes. These men are called for to help to kill the snakes, thus came their name snake-killer. Anna Waa i kan, or here I am too, is a man with low intelligence but lucky to be married to an intelligent woman. She keeps her eyes and ears open and whenever she comes to know that the men of the clan had met and decided to raise funds for a cause, she would send her husband with his contribution in hand and tell him to go to the meeting and tell them that you were there too to pay your share. He then would then go and say, " I am here too." Therefore, when I stumbled on WardheerNews on the first day while browsing the Internet, my initial hunch was that WardheerNews was not Rife or Rife Kalkaal, nor indeed Abeeso Laa or Anna Waa i kan but a real Nin Rag ah iyo Rag kalkaal. My hunch was later proven right by the website's highbrow journalistic standard and its powerful and pithy editorials, a trend that has been pioneered by Awdalnews Network among Somali websites. Several other websites have since tried to follow the example but it is only WardheerNews that has paralleled Awdalnews by bringing forth such brain teasing, thought-provoking and timely editorials. It is indeed admirable to see the wealth of excellent articles, reports and research material that Wardheernews has built up just in one year. I say hurrah to the team of WardheerNews who manage this splendid and informative website. By their concerted and dedicated effort, WardheerNews has left behind the plethora of many Somali Anna Waa i Kan websites, which make a few flashes here and there and then disappear into the dark like a lightning bug. Bashir Goth bsogoth@yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------ WardheerNews dot Com: Mature at Infancy Ismail Ali Ismail Monday, November 21, 2005 WardheerNews dot com has been making enormous strides towards progress and maturity ever since its inception a year ago thanks to the foresight, commitment and the youthful energy of its editorial board. I cannot help but recall in this connection the late President Nyerere’s statement that “we must run while others walkâ€. This is what WardheerNews.com must have been doing in order to catch up with the various much older Somali websites. Those who have eyes to see and are endowed with a sense of recognizing the good will surely bear witness to the fact that this website has surpassed all expectations barely a year after it was launched. There is, obviously, no shortage of Somali websites for there is a plethora of them. But when you have so many you are bound to have some that are so poor in all aspects that they leave much to be desired. There can be no doubt that the gutter press we know in the West and some of our websites are much of a muchness. It is of course very easy – and at times even tempting – to sink to a low level of insults, mudslinging and whipping up clannish sentiments in their ugliest forms. I know that many of our compatriots with lower tastes enjoy reading sensational, if fictional, material as well as some juicy details of scandals which may not even have taken place. Surely, many of us enjoy reading fiction – of whatever kind – but one would call our mental faculties into question if we confuse fiction with reality even though it often mimics real life situations: we ought to separate fantasy from reality. However, I fail to see the entertainment value of sensational fabrications which are meant to exacerbate our pernicious divisions with the aim of perpetuating chaos and anarchy. Indeed some of the websites have left little or no doubt they are merely instruments in the hands of renegade forces that have tried to move heaven and earth to reverse the process of our national reconciliation. We should cherish and enjoy our freedom of expression without fear and without favor. But we should understand that the way we use this freedom says a lot about us too. For surely the way of the sophisticated is vastly different from that of the wild and woolly lot. It is plausible to argue that some leeway should be given the masses who after twenty years of military rule are suddenly confronted with boundless freedom and are only learning how to deal with it or what to do with it. But the decade and half that followed the collapse of that restrictive Somali State have given us a carte blanche which blurred the limits of that freedom and led to the flight of reason. After the procrustean methods of the ancient regime we have been for the last fifteen years a Nation Unbound. I am reminded here of that proverbial anecdote from our folklore in which a mother was worried to death about what might become of her grownup son whose speech faculty had no signs of showing up. She prayed hard and inexorably to Allah to make her son speak. But when He answered her entreaties the boy uttered some unutterable profanities which shocked the mother into speechlessness. Such is the situation in which mother Somalia finds itself today with respect to its sons and daughters who pen words and passages that cut through her heart. It is my firm belief that the quality of our websites should be measured by such criteria as: objectivity; readiness to reflect different shades of opinion including those opposed to the philosophy and orientation of the website; quality of the contributions as to decency, depth and ideas; conscious effort to inform and educate the readers; furthering national unity by trying to heal the wounds of the nation; and the provision of reasonable entertainment. A high-quality website is by definition a discriminating website because it can only accept those contributions that meet its set criteria. I fear, alas, that some of our websites have set only two criteria for themselves both of which are merely mundane: first, that the author is personally known to them; and secondly, that the article should tow the line of the owners of the website. I think that in doing so they are unwittingly doing a disservice both to themselves and the cause or causes they profess to serve – and they expose themselves in the process to ridicule. There is nothing innately wrong with a website being owned by an individual, a family or even a clan so long as it portrays the facts as they are, its analyses of events are reasonable, its inevitable prejudices are not grotesque, and as long as it shows willingness to give space to contrary (not insulting) views. Now then, where does WardheerNews.com fit in all this as it celebrates its first anniversary? Admittedly, I have nothing but praise and admiration for this website considering its achievement in such a short span of time. I think it has shown objectivity and a degree of level-headedness by publishing articles depicting divergent viewpoints; and the articles are usually well-written and well-argued though at times emotions creep into some of them. WardheerNews.com is unique, I must say, in covering and portraying pits and pieces of our culture and history to which I myself contributed and these seem to have been allocated prominent space on the sides of the frontal page. It has also managed to unearth and post old articles by expatriates and a wonderful speech delivered by the late Mohammed Ibrahim Egal, when prime minister, to the Royal African Society in London; it is no doubt instructive to many of our young men and women. Moreover, the Editorial Board has often shown unusual boldness in expressing their views unabashedly on controversial issues and I think it is good to know where they stand on issues impinging on national unity and on how we should get out of the current morass so that we can again be a people who lift their heads high and walk proudly among the free peoples of the World. We may disagree with the views of the Board from time to time but healthy disagreements can only illuminate our way forward provided of course we learn from each contribution. I can only think of two shortcomings. The first is that the Editorial Board does not properly edit submissions for I invariably see minor typing errors as well as minor errors of grammar even in my own articles which could have been removed by simple editing, I can only suggest that WardheerNews.com pay attention to these matters for there is nothing more annoying to an author than to see his work being blemished by such minor mishaps. The other shortcoming has everything to do with our culture and nothing to do with the management of WardheerNews.com. Like other websites these websites has been given a clan label and this I think is the reason why contributions from a much wider section of our people have been few and far between or not forthcoming at all. I think the website should make a special effort to cross interclan barriers and reach out to those others who fear that their views might not be given space. On the whole, I think that WardheerNews.com has performed remarkably well in the course of its one year of existence so far. It stands head and shoulders above many of the older websites and out shines them. Because of these achievements I am certain that some older websites are stealthily casting envious on it. I am sending my warmest tributes to the management and staff of Wardheernews.com for having done an excellent job and I hope this website will grow from strength to strength in the years to come. HAPPY BIRTHDAY WARDHEERNEWS DOT COM. Ismail Ali Ismail Virginia, USA Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taleexi Posted November 23, 2005 Wardheernews educates and agitates at the same time and happy birthday to WDN staff Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
